Stephen Catlin: Insurance Entrepreneur

Great Traits Project

Stephen Catlin is the founder of Catlin Insurance Group.

After 10 years in the insurance industry Stephen Catlin set up his own insurance business in the 1980s. He successfully built a multi-billion dollar underwriting empire from nothing.

In the early years Catlin’s business didn’t even have a typewriter or a fax machine but by the early 2000s the company had 55 offices worldwide writing insurance for Aviation, Casualty, Energy, Marine, Property and War & Political Risk.

By the late 2000s Catlin Group had become the largest insurance underwriter in the specialist insurance market called Lloyds of London (where companies price and underwrite insurance policies) and in 2015, Catlin Group was acquired by XL for $4.1bn.

Stephen is a conviction entrepreneur, who often goes with his gut feeling and openly admits to making mistakes along the way. He is retiring from the insurance industry in December 2017.

In the podcast we talk about Stephen’s life, his business lessons, his mistakes and his successes and his recently published a book, Risk & Reward.